My dear sisters and brothers in the Lord Jesus, grace and peace in Jesus, our Eucharistic Lord! In our Sunday Gospel, Jesus challenges all of us to “strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough!” What does Jesus mean by this? For sure, we all want to go to heaven with the Lord. Yet it is imperative we should be trimmed enough to fit through the narrow gate. That means we should not be ego-obese, say for instance, with the seven deadly sins like pride, greed, gluttony, lust, sloth, envy and anger. We need to do a lot of ego trimming – self effacement. We need to die to our selfish selves so to enter through the narrow gate. It is not enough to fulfill our duties and obligation like going to Sunday Mass but to truly imbibe within us the fruit of our communion with the Lord – to become Christ-like! Let us then double our effort to do our spiritual calisthenics and aerobics so that we will be fit and trim to go through the narrow door.
This weekend we welcome to our Parish all the Reverend Deacons of our Diocese together with their better halves.They are here for their “Summer Annual Gathering” to celebrate God’s call for them, that is, to enter themselves as well as aid others to enter the narrow gate. We thank our own Deacons – Andy, Henry, Fernando, Les and Tom – together with the other deacons of the East Honolulu Vicariate for organizing this event. We also welcome our beloved Bishop Larry who will be the main Speaker and Celebrant for the Eucharist. Let us then join them in prayer that this function will invigorate and renew their spirits to serve the Lord and His people. We will be celebrating Eucharist with them on Friday at 530PM, Saturday at725AM and Sunday at 1015AM.
Our SSS Congregation, all my SSS priest and brothers in the Philippines and our Provincial Superior – V.Rev. Fr. Jhess Malit, SSS would like to express again our sincerest thanks to you dear parishioners for your loving support and encouragement of our ministry here at Star of the Sea for the past 6 years. We are glad to see that our Parish community is continually developing a firm faith, hope and love for Jesus Christ, who is truly present in the Eucharist. We also thank Bishop Larry, together with the whole Diocese of Honolulu, for affirming our Eucharistic ministry here at Star of the Sea for the next 6 years.
We would like to invoke the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary – Star of the Sea – (Today August 22 is supposed to be the memorial of the Queenship of Mary) that she continue to lead our Parish through the sea of life – through the narrow gate – until we all arrive at our final destiny to dine with the Lord in His eternal Banquet!
Fr. Mark U.del Rosario, S.S.S.
